Many companies use coupons or games of various sorts to promote the sale of their products. For example, coupons offering ".sub.---- CENTS OFF" are often seen in the newspapers, and some franchise stores give "scratch-off" game pieces with your purchase, to introduce new products, or for other promotional purposes. The game pieces characteristically include some cash prizes, and some merchandise or food prizes, sold by the franchise store or the product manufacturer.
Manufacturers would like to have the option of mounting such promotional coupons, including game pieces, on products sold in supermarkets, drugstores, and other outlets. However, using previously proposed coupon mounting arrangements, there would be the possibility or likelihood that the coupons would be detached from the product packages in the stores prior to purchase, in view of the lack of close supervision of customers in most supermarkets, large drug stores or similar establishments.
Concerning prior structural arrangements, it is well known that stamps and various types of labels may be removed by water, and F. W. Humphries U.S. Pat. No. 2,223,106 and J. B. Lawrence U.S. Pat. No. 1,985,834 show two stamp configurations intended to prevent re-use of stamps after removal using water. Swiss Patent No. CH 654,529 shows a double thickness lottery ticket assembly wherein the layer bearing the lottery number is concealed by an upper layer secured by adhesive around the edges of the assembly. Attention is also directed to R. Hauber U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,918, granted July 5, 1977 which discloses a label secured to a container by water soluble adhesive so that it may be easily removed by the user, to permit use of the container. However, no promotional information is involved, and the label of Hauber need not be waterproof or integral, as his purpose is to obtain a clean container, not to provide an integral coupon, such as a game piece.
However, none of these patents disclose a solution to the problem of providing secure on-pack promotional coupons, for use in stores and arranged to avoid tampering in the store.